"The Great Skills Reset" in WEF's Future of Jobs Report 2025: a Catch-22 for the future of work?
To say we live in interesting times in an understatement: the world around us unfolds before our very eyes with an unprecedented speed, ultimately altering the way we learn, live, and work. The 2025 Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) lands at a time when Artificial Intelligence, automation and demographic shifts are shaking up the European continent - economy and society alike. It seems that we are standing at a crossroads of a "Catch 22" moment: how can we prepare for a future that is already here and ensure our skills are up to par when the world of work is undergoing a profound transformation?
The skills we need versus the skills we have: finding a path leading away from disruption
The effects of this transformation is visible throughout the EU, traceable in real time. According to the European Commission's 2025 "State of the Digital Decade", skills gaps remain the largest obstacle to the twin digital and green transition, and the shortage of specialists engaged in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector directly hampers innovation. The Future of Jobs report highlights a similar trend: skills gap remain the largest obstacle ahead of business transformation for over half (63%) of employers surveyed. But if the tech sphere is changing so fast and bringing in a plethora of new requirements for prospective job applicants, the way we assess skills also ultimately has to change.
This is reflected in the global policy realm, with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre recently having published the 3.0 edition of its Digital Competence Framework (DigComp), redefining what "digital competence" means for citizens, businesses, and education. Insights from Cedefop, the European agency for the development of vocational training also point to a structural shift in the world of work: their latest report illustrates that labour market demand is moving away from routine tasks, prioritising know-how related to analytical thinking, technological literacy, and lifelong learning. In fact, analytical thinking remains the most sought- after core skill amongst employers surveyed for the 2025 edition of WEF's report (7 out of 10 companies considering this skill as essential in 2025). This is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence.
The 2025 edition of WEF's report showcases this great, international reset of skills - bringing to the table the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers, representing more than 14 million workers in 22 industry clusters and 55 countries.
The report's data in a nutshell
"To the moon?" Boosted AI investment coincides with global growth - but is it that simple?
On a surface level, the picture appears optimistic. Global unemployment rate is at its lowest since 1991, standing at just under 5%. Investment in Artificial Intelligence has increased 8 times since the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022. Demand for GenAI skills by both businesses and individuals has also grown massively, as illustrated by the graph below.
Coursera data generated for the Future of Jobs Report 2025 reveals significant growth in demand for Generative AI training among both individual learners and enterprises - but there seems to be some differences in how individuals approach working with AI compared to companies.
Globally, individual learners are focusing on the basics of GenAI, building skills in areas like prompt engineering, responsible AI use, and strategic decision-making around the technology.
By contrast, the material for learners sponsored by companies is more practical and work-place ready applications. The priority in company-sponsored training is using AI tools to boost productivity (improving knowledge of Excel, automating simple routine tasks, or using AI-powered applications effectively).
At the same time, challenges remain. Global unemployment may be at its record low, but this is not the case for youth unemployment, currently standing at 13% for the EU-27.
Trying to predict the future, one skill at a time
Evolving skill demands mean the scale of workforce up- and re-skilling expected to be needed remains significant: if the world's workforce was made up of 100 people, 59 of them would require some form of training by 2030.
The report projects that between 2025 and 2030, foundational changes in global economy are expected to impact nearly a quarter of all jobs. In total, 22% of today's roles will either fully disappear, or be revised completely. At the same time, 14% of employment is projected to come from entirely new occupations, equated to around 170 million new jobs popping up throughout the world, thereby offsetting the figures estimated above.
Broadening access to digital technologies
Boosting access to digital technologies is posed to be the single most transformative aspect shaping business development by 2030. More than 5 in 10 employers surveyed claimed broadening digital access alone will fundamentally alter and improve the way they operate.
At the same time, rapid advancements in AI and information processing are thought to have the largest impact from all technology types - 86% of employers thought they were gamechangers. High on the list of transformative aspects shaping the world come robotics and automation (58%) and innovations in energy distribution and storage (41%).
The end of (some) jobs as we know them
It would be naive to think these shifts will affect the labour market evenly. Instead, some roles will grow massively, while others will quickly decline. In any case, demand for digital technologies skills and know-how is expected to surge rapidly. Knowledge and skillset in AI, big data, networks and cybersecurity and overall digital literacy are projected as the fastest growing skill areas in demand for coming years. The figures below displays ILO's projected fastest growing and declining jobs for the period 2025 to 2030.
Technology-related roles are the fastest-growing jobs in percentage terms, including Big Data Specialists, Fintech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists and Software and Application Developers. Green and energy transition roles, including Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialists, Environmental Engineers, and Renewable Energy Engineers, also feature within the top fastest-growing roles.
If we look towards the future, the impact of technology on the labour market is undeniable. It is projected to be the single most impactful driver of change in the labour market. Broadening digital access is expected to both create (19 million), and displace jobs (9 million) on a massive scale. Equally, trends observed in the increased development and uptake of AI and information processing, are expected to create around 11 million jobs, and displace another 9 million - more than any other technology.
Skills to the rescue: imagining a different future - and one that we get to choose
Naturally, if the world evolves with such a fast pace, our skills have to follow suit. The graph below shows employers' expectations on the skills projected to grow and decline in the next 5 years.
Technological skills take the lead in employer expectations, projected to grow in importance massively compared to other skillsets. From the tech skills the world will need, the WEF report identifies AI and big data on top of the list, followed closely by networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy. Skills like creative and critical thinking, as well as socio-emotional attitudes (resilience, flexibility, and agility) along with curiosity and lifelong learning are also projected to grow in importance. Leadership, social influence, talent management, analytical thinking and environmental stewardship also rank amongst the top 10 growing skills in need by 2030.
Further reading
Want to know more about the evolution of skills and technology and learn the key trends that will shape the next 5 years in the world of work? Head over to the dedicated report page on the World Economic Forum's website and dive into the full report.
You can click here to download the full report in PDF format or read its executive summary via here.
